The Blue Stragglers and the Integrated Spectral Energy Distribution of Single Stellar Populations

Blue stragglers are a common observational fact for the Galactic clusters. Single Stellar Populations (SSPs) are basic to the studies of galaxy structre and evolution. SSPs are mainly based either on the observation of the integrated properties of star clusters, or on the theoretical understandings of single star evolution. Both of the two ways of making SSPs suffer from either observational uncertainties concerning field contaminations or lack of good models for close binary systems. Based on the photometry of the classical open cluster M67 and the thorough membership survey, we made a color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of high membership stars for the cluster. We will show that by including the contributions of the bright blue stragglers that is common to open clusters, the integrated properties of the clusters are quite different from tranditional SSP models. We further conclude that these blue light contributors are very important to SSP models, and may cast new lights on its applications in the studies of galaxies.

Partial Clones for Stragglers in MapReduce

Stragglers can temporize jobs and reduce cluster efficiency seriously.Many researches have been contributed to the solution, such as Blacklist[8], speculative execution[1, 6], Dolly[8]. In this paper, we put forward a new approach for mitigating stragglers in MapReduce, name Hummer. It starts task clones only for high-risk delaying tasks. Related experiments have been carried and results show that it can decrease the job delaying risk with fewer resources consumption. For small jobs, Hummer also improves job completion time by 48% and 10% compared to LATE and Dolly.

S1280 and S1284: Two Oscillating Blue Stragglers in the Open Cluster M67

We present results of a time-series CCD photometry of two blue stragglers in the open cluster M67 that are also oscillating variables, S1280 and S1284. The observations obtained on 11 nights confirmed the δ Scuti-like variability of the two stars. Four and five main pulsating frequencies are detected for S1280 and S1284, respectively, through a power spectral analysis. A preliminary mode identification indicates that the two stars are both in radial oscillation. Based on the nature of oscillation, the physical parameters of the two stars are determined, and their evolutionary status discussed.

Elastic Optimization for Stragglers in Edge Federated Learning

To fully exploit enormous data generated by intelligent devices in edge computing,edge federated learning(EFL)is envisioned as a promising solution.The distributed collaborative training in EFL deals with delay and privacy issues compared to traditional centralized model training.However,the existence of straggling devices,responding slow to servers,degrades model performance.We consider data heterogeneity from two aspects:high dimensional data generated at edge devices where the number of features is greater than that of observations and the heterogeneity caused by partial device participation.With large number of features,computation overhead on the devices increases,causing edge devices to become stragglers.And incorporation of partial training results causes gradients to be diverged which further exaggerates when more training is performed to reach local optima.In this paper,we introduce elastic optimization methods for stragglers due to data heterogeneity in edge federated learning.Specifically,we define the problem of stragglers in EFL.Then,we formulate an optimization problem to be solved at edge devices.We customize a benchmark algorithm,FedAvg,to obtain a new elastic optimization algorithm(FedEN)which is applied in local training of edge devices.FedEN mitigates stragglers by having a balance between lasso and ridge penalization thereby generating sparse model updates and enforcing parameters as close as to local optima.We have evaluated the proposed model on MNIST and CIFAR-10 datasets.Simulated experiments demonstrate that our approach improves run time training performance by achieving average accuracy with less communication rounds.The results confirm the improved performance of our approach over benchmark algorithms.

Mitigating Straggler Effect in Federated Learning Based on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface over Internet of Vehicles

To protect vehicular privacy and speed up the execution of tasks,federated learning is introduced in the Internet of Vehicles(IoV)where users execute model training locally and upload local models to the base station without massive raw data exchange.However,heterogeneous computing and communication resources of vehicles cause straggler effect which weakens the reliability of federated learning.Dropping out vehicles with limited resources confines the training data.As a result,the accuracy and applicability of federated learning models will be reduced.To mitigate the straggler effect and improve performance of federated learning,we propose a reconfigurable intelligent surface(RIS)-assisted federated learning framework to enhance the communication reliability for parameter transmission in the IoV.Furthermore,we optimize the phase shift of RIS to achieve a more reliable communication environment.In addition,we define vehicular competence to measure both vehicular trustworthiness and resources.Based on the vehicular competence,the straggler effect is mitigated where training tasks of computing stragglers are offloaded to surrounding vehicles with high competence.The experiment results verify that our proposed framework can improve the reliability of federated learning in terms of computing and communication in the IoV.

The fractions of post-binary-interaction stars and evolved blue straggler stars on the red giant branch of globular clusters

The red giant branch(RGB)of globular clusters(GCs)is home to some exotic stars,which may provide clues on the formation of multiple stellar populations in GCs.It is well known that binary interactions are responsible for many exotic stars.Thus,it is important to understand what fraction of stars on the RGB of GCs is the result of binary interactions.In this paper,we performed a binary population synthesis study to track the number of post-binary-interaction(post-BI)stars that appear on the RGB,with particular emphasis on the evolved blue straggler stars(E-BSSs).Assuming an initial binary fraction of nearly 50%,we find that about half of the objects on the RGB(called giants)underwent the binary interactions,and that E-BSSs account for around 10%of the giants in our standard simulation.We also compare the properties of post-BI giants that evolved from different channels.We find that the initial orbital period and mass ratio distributions significantly affect the fraction of post-BI giants.Our results imply that the non-standard stars from binary interactions provide a non-negligible contribution to the RGB stars in GCs,which should be considered in future investigations of the origin of multiple stellar populations.

Two particular EA-type binaries in the globular cluster ω Centauri

We analyzed the B and V light curves of two EA-type binaries V211 and NV358 for the first time using the Wilson-Devinney code. Our analysis shows that V211 is a typical Algol-type binary and NV358 is a well detached binary system. As the two binaries are definite members of ω Centauri due to their proper motion, we estimated their physical parameters, obtaining M1 = 1.13 4±0.03 M⊙, R1 = 0.98±0.01 R⊙, M2 = 0.33 ±0.01 M⊙ and R2 = 0.92 ±0.01 R⊙ forV211; M1 = 1.304-0.05 M⊙, R1 = 1.03±0.01 R⊙, M2 = 0.58±0.02 M⊙ and R2 = 0.78±0.01 R⊙ for NV358. On the color-magnitude diagram of ω Centauri, V211 is located in the faint blue straggler region and its primary component is more massive than a star at the main-sequence turnoff. Therefore, V211 is a blue straggler and was formed by mass transfer from the secondary component to the primary. The age of NV358 is less than 1.93 Gyr, indicating that it is much younger than the first generation of stars in ω Centaufi. Like NV364 in ω Centaufi, NV358 should be a second-generation binary.

Simulation of old open clusters for UVIT on ASTROSAT

The Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope （UVIT） is one of the payloads on the first Indian multiwavelength satellite ASTROSAT, which is expected to be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation （ISRO） in the year 2015. We have per- formed simulations of UV studies of old open clusters for the UVIT. The colour mag- nitude diagrams （CMDs） and spatial appearances have been created using 10 filters associated with the FUV channel （130-180 nm） and NUV channel （200-300 nm） that are available for observations on the UVIT, for the three old open clusters M67, NGC 188 and NGC 6791. The CMDs are simulated for different filter combinations, and they are used to identify the loci of various evolutionary sequences, white dwarfs, blue stragglers, red giants, subgiants, turn off stars and the main sequence of the clus- ters. The present work helps in identifying a potential area of study in the case of these three old open clusters by considering the availability of filters and the detection limits of the instrument. We also recommend filter combinations, which can be used to detect and study the above mentioned evolutionary stages. The simulations and the results presented here are essential for the optimal use of the UVIT for studies of old open clusters.

Influence of the Choice of Core-Envelope Transition Point on the Binary Merger of Two Main-sequence Components

We have studied the influence of different choices of core-envelope transition point on the final merger of contact binaries with two main-sequence components. A binary of 1.00 + 0.90M⊙ with an initial orbital period of 0.35d is examined. The mass fraction of the primary mixed with the matter of the secondary, qmix, determined by the chosen core-envelope transition point, ranges from 0.04 to 1.00 in our analysis. If as qmix< 0.8, none of the helium-rich matter in the center of the primary is mixed into the envelope, and there is little distinction in the evolutionary tracks of the mergers. The timescales of the mergers remaining on the main sequence, tBS are very similar (-6.2×108yr) if qmix< 0.71, since no hydrogen-rich matter of the secondary is mixed into the core of the mergers; for qmix > 0.71, the larger qmix is, the greater the mixing, hence the longer the blue straggler lifetime, tBS, and also the greater the luminosity. For qmix= 1.00, tBS -8.5×108yr. Estimation by (?)r - (?)a = 0.0 shows that the point at which tBS begins to increase is about qmix= 0.68. In comparison with the homogeneously mixed models, the merger with a helium profile similar to that of the primary is less luminous and has a shorter tBS.

Meeting deadlines for approximation processing in MapReduce environments

To provide timely results for big data analytics, it is crucial to satisfy deadline requirements for MapReduce jobs in today＇s production environments. Much effort has been devoted to the problem of meeting deadlines, and typically there exist two kinds of solutions. The first is to allocate appropriate resources to complete the entire job before the specified time limit, where missed deadlines result because of tight deadline constraints or lack of resources; the second is to run a pre-constructed sample based on deadline constraints, which can satisfy the time requirement but fail to maximize the volumes of processed data. In this paper, we propose a deadline-oriented task scheduling approach, named ＇Dart＇, to address the above problem. Given a specified deadline and restricted resources, Dart uses an iterative estimation method, which is based on both historical data and job running status to precisely estimate the real-time job completion time. Based on the estimated time, Dart uses an approach-revise algorithm to make dynamic scheduling decisions for meeting deadlines while maximizing the amount of processed data and mitigating stragglers. Dart also efficiently handles task failures and data skew, protecting its performance from being harmed. We have validated our approach using workloads from OpenCloud and Facebook on a cluster of 64 virtual machines. The results show that Dart can not only effectively meet the deadline but also process near-maximum volumes of data even with tight deadlines and limited resources.

Photometric analysis of a blue straggler eclipsing binary in the old open cluster NGC 2141

To understand the formation mechanism of blue stragglers in open clusters, we conducted a photometric analysis for a blue straggler eclipsing binary in the old open cluster NGC 2141. By using the least square fitting of times of minima, we derived the ephemeris and redetermined the orbital period of this system to be 0.6227 d. We have also done a photometric analysis for light curve with the Wilson-Devinney Code （2003）. The photometric solutions reveal a semi-detached binary with the second- ary component filling its Roche lobe. The photometric mass ratio MJMI （secondary/primary） was determined to be 0.190_＋0.002 and the ratio of V-band luminosity L2/LI（V） is about 0.033_＋0.001, which indicates the secondary component is overluminous. Thus, this blue straggler likely results from a substantial mass exchange between these two components.